SC Baseball Ranked

The preseason acclimations keep coming for the University of South Carolina baseball team.
The Gamecocks are ranked No. 4 in the USA Today/ESPN preseason coaches' poll released today, making them a consensus top 10 pick heading into the season.

USC, which opens the season Feb. 9 against Oklahoma in a tournament in Wilmington, N.C., was ranked No. 3 by Collegiate Baseball, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and rivals.com, NCBWA and No. 6 by Baseball America.

The Gamecocks are the highest-ranked Southeastern Conference team in each poll.

Rice was ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN poll followed by Clemson and Miami (Fla.). Other SEC teams ranked in the top 25 are Arkansas (6), Vanderbilt (10), Ole Miss (18) and Tennessee (19).

who are we kidding

Date	Opp.	Actual	Announced
Nov. 10	S.C. State	6,214	6,307
Nov. 19	Lipscomb	3,377	12,626
Dec. 2	Clemson	10,050	14,540
Dec. 7	Charleston	6,240	14,760
Dec. 20	Princeton	6,458	12,271
Dec. 28	UNC Asheville	5,243	13,776
Dec. 29	Jacksonville	2,508	12,955
Jan. 3	W. Carolina	4,476	13,084
Jan. 7	Kansas	10,493	14,713
Jan. 13	Florida	8,420	13,828
Jan. 17	Kentucky	7,313	13,809
Jan. 24	Arkansas	5,272	11,776 These are the attendance reports listed by the state newspapter this morning.

Remember these guys...

Renaldo Balkman {#32} for the New York Knicks is having "not so much" success his first year or for what many expect from a first round draft pick. We promised a "Balkman Watch" and some asked about Kinsey so LOHD thought it would be a good time for a update.

Let's look at his number so far this season:

He has played in 40 games, averaging 13:24 mins a game with 3.4 points per game and 3.4 rebounds per game with .7 assists a game, .6 steals a game and .8 blocks a game. Not exactly "stellar" numbers.


Tarance Kinsey {#7} for the Memphis Grizzlies is just now getting some "PT" but is still not a factor on the team in his first year. He did not play in any games for the entire month of November and played here and there in December. But lately he has earned some "PT." He was undrafted out of college and signed as a free agent.

Look at his numbers this year:

Kinsey has played in 15 games, averaging 9 mins a game with 2.4 points per game with a rebound, assist, steal and block here and there.

SEC recruiting maps

How cool is this website, this guy has done maps for each school in the SEC to show where the majority of there players are recruited from.

Talkin' SC hoops...

I know this season is not over but I have already started to think about next year for the SC men's basketball team. Call me crazy but I don't see the 'cocks turning this boat around anytime soon. The SEC is too strong this year and we just don't have the weapons to upset teams down the road. Only hope of a NCAA berth is to win the SEC Tourney, which well is not likely and the chance of a 3 peat of NIT Champs is fading away fast. But hey we got Odom to re-sign his contract...

The Gamecocks could probably use any of their heralded transfers on the court right now. The Gamecocks (10-7, 0-4 Southeastern Conference) have lost five in a row, the first four by a total of 112 points before last Saturday's 64-61 defeat at Tennessee.

Nice article on si.com discussing the recent transfer of Mike Jones from 'Cuse to USC. Last year's "Mr. Basketball" for the Palmetto State became the latest highly regarded player from the state to start his career elsewhere and then return home. The 6-foot-8 Jones attended classes Tuesday, officially joining former Cincinnati standout Devan Downey from Chester High and ex-Georgia Tech guard Zam "Buck" Fredrick of Calhoun County High on the Gamecocks talented waiting list. Both Downey and Fredrick were also honored with "Mr. Basketball" during their prep careers.
Downey and Fredrick are eligible next season while Jones, must wait until after the fall semester ends to suit up for South Carolina.

Dev's Intervention

There are only four episodes left of my good friend Dev's favorite show the OC, we will be holding group meetings to help support Dev thru this difficult time. As we all know every show comes to a end sometimes, granted Dev thought that the OC would last forever. Granted that isn't the case and now his little Indian heart is broken. I am sure there will a lot of drinking, maybe some crying, and a lot Phantom Planet playing in the background. Will we probably end up starting a "Bring back the OC fund" where donations can @ 1-800-Gay-Show.

Culliver is a Gamecock

Carlos Dunlap is a florida Gator

Carlos Dunlap decided to commit to the university of Florida

Chris Culliver and Carlos Dunlap

Both have decided to make commitments this week, with Dunlap today and Culliver on Wednesday. So stay tuned to find out if USC or Florida won the recruiting race on these two top prospects. On local sports radio last night, Dunlap’s coach said that Carlos called him on his way back from UF and said h e was ready to commit. They also reported that his mom went to find out if coaches would take care of Carlos academically down in Florida. This doesn’t look good for the gamecocks since his parents have been the biggest fans of USC in this process.

Hopefully it all works out.